Language Choice in Multilingual Communities | Sociolinguistics

Language is an important aspect of human communication because it is a good sign of interaction as the intended message will be conveyed and fully understood. People in several parts of the world, are inhabited by different linguistic families, communities, and groups. In this discussion, we talk about multilingual community. There are three main parts of the topic, as follows, 1) choosing one variety or code; 2) dilogssia; and 3) code switching or code mixing.

In a multilingual community, people living may speak more than one language, there is more than one language is used in that situation. Thus, the multilingual speaker can have linguistic repertoire. When interacting with others, they can choose a code or a variety which is appropriate with participants, topic and location depends on the domain of language use. The complexities of language choice in society form unique sociolinguistic situations. A speech community use two varieties (H variety and L variety) to cover all communities domains which is called diglossia. Whereas poliglossia is described as situations where more than two distinct codes or varieties are used for distinguishable situations. Language choice is also determined by social distance, status, formality, either function. The process of switching back and forth between one language or dialect and another within the same conversation is called code switching. It is a conversational strategy used to establish, cross, or break group boundaries; to create, evoke, or change interpersonal reaction. Situational code switching happens because of the situation changes while metaphorical code switching happens because of the topic changes.

Source

Holmes, J., 2013. An Introduction To Sociolinguistics. 4th ed. Harlow, Eng.: Longman.

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